Pokemon Card Laboratory has launched their Worlds 2009 website, which contains photos and videos of the event from this past August. If you were there, chances are you are somewhere on the site. The website itself is an impressive piece of workmanship, using Flash to pull off some impressive animations. Check it out!

The official press release for HeartGold & SoulSilver has been released. It contains information we already discovered a few weeks ago, though we do find out the theme deck names. The English set is the equivalent of Japan's LEGEND: HeartGold and SoulSilver.

The press release states the set will have only 120 cards. The Japanese set had 150 cards, plus an additional 14 promos associated with it, so 44 cards will be cut. Counting the Slowking (Prime) promo, three Pokemon Prime cards are up for the chopping block. It looks like our second English HGSS set will consist of the 44 cut cards, plus the 54 cards from the Battle Starter Decks and Expert Deck Leafeon vs. Metagross and possibly some of the more recent Japanese promos such as Raichu (Prime). Then, Revived Legends, along with its Tyranitar and Steelix theme decks, could be our third HGSS set in August.

Release date: 10th February 2010

Journey to the Johto Region to reveal HeartGold & SoulSilver!

Pokemon are the heart and soul of any great Pokemon Trainer, and now is your chance to catch some of the greatest Pokemon of all time! With new kinds of cards that will change the way you play - like Pokemon Prime and the astonishing Pokemon LEGENDs Ho-Oh and Lugia - plus lots of Trainer cards that will accelerate your game and select Energy cards with a brand-new look, the HeartGold and SoulSilver expansion will get you started on your journey to greatness!

If you participate in a City Championship this season you will receive a reverse holo Gible promo reprint from Supreme Victors. The card is printed on the same holofoil paper as the Pokemon League promos. Click the thumbnail below for a larger image; thanks go to Kirbypopstarhero for the photo. This most likely means Gabite will be the State Championship promo while Garchomp will be the Nationals promo.

Why is it that every Tuesday there is always new promo news during my film writing class? We should call it "Promo Film Studies Tuesday." Also, why is it that every time I open my school's newspaper on Tuesday they have a comic on Pokemon? Also, what's with today and card artwork? :p

In addition to the previously released DP53 Arceus LV.X tin, a new Arceus Collector's Tin will hit store shelves on December 16th for $14.99, though it is already available at some stores early. It comes with two Arceus and two Diamond and Pearl or Platinum series booster packs. The Arceus LV.X is numbered promo #56 and is a reprint of the Meteor Blast Arceus LV.X, though with new artwork. The tin has the exact same design as the previous Arceus tin except that it's blue instead of green. Click the thumbnails below for larger images. The card is holo in real life, unlike the card art pictured below.

An interview was posted yesterday with Pokemon TCG director Wataru Kawahara and TCG illustrator Shinji Higuchi for a Japanese PC Magazine website. In it, the two talked about working for the Pokemon TCG and using the computer to create artwork. They also showed the website a card from the upcoming Revived Legends set: Scyther, which you can view below. Vincent has translated Scyther below as well.

Interestingly, both worked on the card's artwork together; the illustration bar has been extended to fit their names. Higuchi has only created artwork for Lugia LEGEND and Ho-Oh LEGEND while director Kawahara has several illustrations under his sleeve, including Charizard G, Charizard G LV.X, and both Jirachi and Metagross from Expert Deck Leafeon vs. Metagross. The first image below is the concept art for Scyther while the final computer-generated image is the card's artwork. Click the thumbnails for larger images. Scyther is #5 / 80, which means there will be 80 cards in Revived Legends's main set.

Scyther - Grass - HP60
Basic Pokemon

[C][C] Aftervision Haze: 20 damage. During your opponent's next turn, if Scyther is damaged by an opponent's attack, flip a coin. If heads, that attack does nothing.

The next Japanese set will be called Revived Legends and will be released in Japan on February 11th. This is the second time in the TCG's history that there will be a large gap between sets, as LEGEND: HeartGold & SoulSilver was released back at the beginning of October and this set will be released four months later. However, the gap is likely caused by the recent release of the Battle Starter Decks and Expert Deck Leafeon vs. Metagross package.

Thanks to Kareda, our Japanese contact, we have some exclusive information about this second LEGEND set. The Legendary Pokemon cards will be "Entei & Raikou LEGEND," "Suicune & Entei LEGEND," and "Raikou & Suicune LEGEND." Instead of two halves of one Pokemon making one Legendary Pokemon card like the last set, this time a Legendary Pokemon card is created from two different Pokemon. Pokemon Prime included in the set are Tyranitar, Steelix, Kingdra, and Lanturn. The first HGSS set did not have any Darkness or Metal types, so this set will introduce them to the LEGEND era.

Revived Legends will feature two 60-card decks named Standard Deck Steelix (Steel) and Standard Deck Tyranitar (Darkness). The Steelix deck will feature a holo Steelix, Scizor (Prime), Scyther, and Pinsir. The Tyranitar deck will contain a holo Tyranitar, Houndoom (Prime), Hitmonlee, and Hitmonchan. Each deck will cost 1500 yen, or about 15 dollars.

Welp, today's Thanksgiving! Have a happy Turkey Day! Sorry for the lack of updates. All of my professors decided that the week before Thanksgiving is the perfect time to assign a bunch of essays. There hasn't been much news anyway, though I'll catch up on some stories either tonight or tomorrow. What are you grateful for? I am grateful for my family, this website, school (I know hard to believe), and that my evil essays are over. I am not grateful that my grandma is no longer here. I am impartial to the Arceus dub...

As for the TCG simulator program included in the Expert Deck Leafeon vs Metagross gift box, it will offer several different modes of play: matchmaking, where players are matched with random players of the same skill level; friend battles, where players battle people from their friends list; and an offline mode where players battle the computer. The game ranks a person according to their win record and grants in-game rewards such as medals. Players can also join teams, which are ranked collectively, and can communicate with each other during their games by using various set phrases; this is similar to the way communication was handled in Super Smash Bros Brawl. In December, Pokemon Card Laboratory (PCL) will also be hosting an online tournament, though few details are known about it at this time. PCL has promised to support the game through August 31st, 2010, but it is unknown whether the servers will be maintained after that date.

The site also revealed a new Raichu promo, which is a Great Pokemon (or "Pokemon Prime" for the English cards, as we just found out yesterday). It can be obtained through the PCG points system, which is similar to our Pokemon League rewards - it is the Hyper Rank prize. Previous prizes were the Japanese versions of the DP51 an DP52 Cresselia and Darkrai promos we posted last week.

Raichu - Lightning - HP100
Stage 1 - Evolves from Pikachu

Poke-Power: Voltage Up
You can use this power any number of times during your turn. Move 1 Lightning Energy attached to one of your Pokemon to this Pokemon. This Power can't be used if this Pokemon is affected by a Special Condition.

As expected, the next English set is HeartGold & SoulSilver, retaining the same name as the Japanese set but without the "LEGEND" title. The only change known so far is that "Great Pokemon" will now be called "Pokemon Prime." The set will be released in stores on February 10th, meaning prereleases will take place the weekends of January 30th and February 6th. Based on the set's release date, we can also expect the video games to hit store shelves within a month or two afterwards in perhaps March or early April.

As with all sets, there will be several products sold alongside its release: a three-pack blister pack with an unknown promo card, a poster pack with either a Lugia or Ho-Oh promo, and three Spring 2010 Collector tins with four booster packs and alternate art promo reprints of either Prime Meganium, Prime Typhlosion, or Prime Feraligatr. We should have images of these products within the next few weeks.